The present invention will be described as applied to a 72-valve Can Filler sold by Geo. J. Meyer Manufacturing Co., of Cudahy, Wisconsin, described in detail in a manual identified as H P 341-1, 692C, copies of the cover and page 3-1 of which are filed herewith for reference, but the usefulness of the nozzle head of this invention is not confined to that machine. For example, with simple dimensional changes to accommodate different mounting arrangements, the nozzle head can be used on a Crown Cork and Seal Company machine, or other bowl type, gravity fill machines in which the nozzle head projects into head space above the liquid in the filled can.
High speed can filling machines for the canning of effervescent liquids such as carbonated soft drinks and beer, for example, have a multiplicity of "filling valves", frequently seventy-two, communicating with a filler bowl in which the liquid to be dispensed to the cans is maintained under pressure. The filling valves are equipped at their outer ends with nozzle heads, extending into the can to be filled. In conventional nozzle heads, the leading surface is perpendicular to the axis of the can to be filled, and a multiplicity of tubes, spaced evenly around the leading surface, project from the surface toward the side wall of the can to be filled, uniformly canted circumferentially and lying in an outwardly divergent conical projection.
There are two drawbacks to this construction. If a can is even slightly misaligned as it is raised to filling position, it can be dented or scratched by the end of a tube, and the present construction permits the filling of cans of only one opening size. As to the first, even a barely discernable scratch of the protective coating on the inside of a can will lead to the production of a metallic taste in the beverage. As to the second, because brewers and soft drink manufacturers have begun to use not only straight wall, but single, double and even triple necked cans, three and four different sets of valves have had to be used. At present prices, the replacement of a set of seventy-two valves amounts to a substantial investment.
One of the objects of this invention is to provide a filling machine nozzle head that obviates or minimizes damage to cans being filled.
Another object is to provide such a head that can be used without modification for filling cans with a multiplicity of opening sizes.
Still another object is to provide such a head that is relatively simple, inexpensive, easy to sanitize, minimizes product loss, and is rugged and dependable.
Other objects will become apparent to those skilled in the art in the light of the following description and accompanying drawing.